Travel – Hotel rooms getting web savy

There has been a recent boost in the tourism sector with special focus to inbound travel, that is traveling inside India. Yes, those days are now gone when holidaying in India meant visiting distant relatives or pilgrimage while also making the best of vacations. Infact this India specific phenomenon has inspired many a creative people specially writers to talk volumes about this system of holidaying and many interesting incidents always added to make it interesting reads.

Now the system is fast changing, people are moving out to have a look at places heard and seen in films. Traditional hot joints has always been the favorite across all sections while there are also some who are looking out newer avenues to unwind from high pressure work environment that is now synonymous to work. With the Indian Middle class too venturing out , its music to ears to all hotel owners across India.

Yes, traveling does sound very exciting with numerous happy expectations to it, but then that’s just the beginning, there could be nightmares to follow. Making anxious phone calls to various travel agents, hotels and taxi services, being on tender hooks till the last moment every time threatening to put the sweet dreams to full stop.

Well now this could all be history now, promising peace at last, a comprehensive web based reservation service to care to all your traveling needs. http://www.indiantravelportal.com has launched its online Hotel Reservation System (OHRS) for all travel agents across India.

OHRS is different as well as advanced because it offers real time rates and availability on the web with no time lag. It also enables customers for instant hotel bookings with confirmed reservations within 30 seconds approximately. There is also provision of advance payment online from the customer instantly with the help of payment gateways. Since it is available 24 hours without any need of dedicated person manning the system. Since all bookings take place in real time, the hotel can dictate the pricing according to the demand of the market and raise or reduce the prices accordingly.

With the fully functional OHRS in place the hotel is better placed to have a complete control over its inventory and also provide complete room description, availability rates including daily and seasonal flexibility. Another option, which an operator has at his disposal is opening and closing of room availability, which can be done instantly without going into many technical details. Even creating and maintaining of databases is simplified with instant updates possible with no dependence on third party.

Even the property, which is put on available mode all details with photographs, is put along side. In fact there are seven distinct fields covering all aspects and amenities along with location and city information. The hotel or travel agency is able to get automatic online accounts maintained with the help of computerized error free accounting.

While this system may seem to be a boom for the hotel and travel agency, one should not forget that travel industry is very customer centric and the customer has to be the king all throughout. Studies have indicated that customer always wanted instant confirmations, for every 10 potential customers e-mailing a query, nine leave due to lack of instant confirmation.

The prospective customer can avail confirmation, cancellation, current reservation status and amendments. The customer is also secured of any transactions that he indulges online is encrypted which also includes card details. Alternate payment options are also available like debit cards and online accounts. The customer after checking out his requirements needs to fill in the booking form online and also paying the advance amount. On completing the formalities the customer gets a voucher, which he has to show at the hotel desk on arrival.

Although this system seems all set to bring in a huge change in the hotel reservation system there are some important roadblocks, which need to be removed. RBI regulations have been posing problems when it comes to cancellation of hotel rooms from foreign nationals using dollars as a mode of payment. Some of the hoteliers are also wary of giving hotel rooms for online hotel reservations. Indian payment gateways are also charging a high percentage on the transaction made online. The hotel industry is hopeful that in the coming days online bookings will become a norm and help the overall travel industry.